Editors ́ Picks

Coke, Mexico, ISIS and other things.

EDITOR:

Gurmeet Singh, Berlin

So imagine you get to build your own society. You’re God for a day, and you need to build a hospitable, functioning place for people to thrive. What do you get? Food, water, shelter – obviously. What else? Jobs/ duties – sure. Culture – oh yes. Philosophy – stick it on the bill. Coca-Cola? Hmm. Maybe. Anyone got any better ideas?

Well, according to Coca-Cola, they are building a better society. In Mexico, at least. You’d think the only things they were building was a massive pile of money, while hospitals had to build bigger waiting rooms to accommodate all those diabetes and obesity patients desperate for treatment – but sure, ok, let’s take them at their word, Coke’s building a better society.

So why exactly were they forced to pull a recent advert in the country? The company’s latest TV spot has got a small army of white, urban hipsters travelling to the Mixa region to give the indigenous community Cokes and spread some Christmas vibes. Big love.

It’s predictably well-made, everyone’s happy, there’s even a nice filter to the lens. Commercialism and religion have an obviously long and violent historical romance, and there’s no need to go into that now. But, there are two points which make this particular advert remarkable:

Firstly, the imagery of Coke being distributed like Bibles to the natives is unbelievably crass.

Secondly, Al-Jazeera reports that people featured in the ad were happy to take part; they did not feel humiliated or exploited.

On the first point: there’s no contention, this trope is not only astonishingly insensitive, it’s so boring. Are people really still peddling the enlightened/ benighted dichotomy in 2015? Sure, they are – from ISIS to racist cartoons, this stuff still happens. Boringly enough, people still believe they are helping others – by giving them food, a Coke, or in Isis’ case, killing them.

On the second point, this is something to take seriously. When we defend a principle like proper representations of people – we should take their viewpoints seriously. If we don’t, we risk repeating the mistakes of the people we oppose. If we believe people should be represented properly in visual media, and that they should be given full credit and respect for what they want – then we also have to take into account that they might want to have Coke handed to them by a white, urban hipster.

If we deny this, we’re really no better than the people peddling such stereotypes in the first place. We say, ‘yeah, the natives might want a Coke, but they don’t know any better – they don’t understand the world like we do’.

This is one of the more jagged pills socially-liberal people have to swallow: defending what you disagree with. Everyone knows Voltaire said something like, ‘I don’t agree with what you say, but I’ll defend you’re right to say it’. Well, I fear that’s a principle we’re losing – we can’t simply shut down debate because it’s not the one we want to have.

That doesn’t mean of course tolerating everything. The defence of principles requires hard thinking and hard work; there are no easy answers. The people in the ad consented to their involvement, which makes this a nuanced issue. There are people in Syria who probably consent to ISIS’ involvement in that region – does that mean we should support that? No. See – it’s difficult. But if we want to build the societies we want to see, we might have to just stomach a Coke ad in the process.

11.Dec

December 11th, 2015

Europe's foreigners are mostly Europeans

EDITOR:

Ama Lorenz

Living in Europe – what is it really? That’s a question the EU statistic nerds of Eurostat try to display in their 2015 report on “People in the EU: who are we and how do we live?” To find the answers they analysed everything – from household sizes, migration until even the availability of indoor plumbing – and they found some interesting statistical facts. Facts that may show, why some European countries are more scared about the millions of refugees knocking on their doors than others. Or for some, this report may even bring light into some perceived discomfort about being “overrun”. As the figures show, your neighbour is most likely from another EU member state. As European politician are going to seal the continent off from people fleeing from certain regions, Europeans themselves benefit from the free movement of persons as one of the fundamental freedoms of the internal market, enshrined in law (Article 45 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and subsequent secondary legislation). As such, citizens of EU Member States, together with their immediate family - spouses or registered partners are free to go, live and work wherever they want and for whatever reasons.

According to the report, approximately half of all foreign-born people living in the EU Member States were from elsewhere in Europe. More than 10 % of those born in Cyprus, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland and Romania lived abroad in another EU Member State and more than one in five residents living in an EU Member State but born in another Member State originated from Poland. There are 2.7 million Polish-born residents living in Germany. It becomes very interesting to observe the foreign policy and the behaviour of the new Polish government in terms of the refugee policy in its own country!

By contrast, more than one-third (36.9%) of foreign-born residents - some 18.8 million persons- were born in the other EU Member States, while 7.4 million (14.6 %) were born in other European countries outside of the EU. Residents in the EU Member States who were born in Asia made up 20.8% of the foreign- born total while EU residents born in Africa made up 16.9% of the total and residents born in the Caribbean, Central and South America made up 8.7%. There were relatively small shares for those born in North America (1.7%) and Oceania (0.6%). In absolute terms, the largest numbers of foreign-born people living in the EU Member States on 1 January 2014 were found in Germany (9.8 million), a country with approximately 80 million inhabitants. The Moroccan community is the largest foreign-born community in the EU. And as the report says: The second and third largest foreign-born communities resident in the EU-28 were composed of people born in Turkey and Russia (2.1 million and 1.8 million persons), while there were in excess of one million residents living in the EU originating from each of Algeria, Ukraine and India. It is interesting to note that there were more Chinese-born residents living in the EU-28 (827 thousand) than American-born residents (584 thousand).

A lot of figures, indeed! But what they show is, humans have always moved across the planet, from the beginnings of mankind, through tribal and religious migrations, empire building, colonialism and slavery, to more modern forms (see also fairplanet’s dossier ESCAPE). The official statistics agency of Eurostat finds that Europe is a diverse place – always has been and it better will be. Because, the ever-changing lifestyles and population trends of good old Europe show, that the 506.8 million inhabitants in the EU-28 as of 1 January 2014 are ageing, rapidly. Aside from Japan, the EU is the world’s most rapidly ageing region. Especially, in 11 EU Member States - ahead of everyone: Germany, recording 1.76 million fewer inhabitants between 2004 and 2013, followed by Romania with1.57 million fewer inhabitants.

Europop2013, the latest population projections released by Eurostat, forecast the largest reductions in population numbers in eastern and southern EU Member States. Seclusion – that history has shown, is definitely no solution.

09.Dec

December 09th, 2015

A climate coalition reveals itself

EDITOR:

Vanessa Ellingham

Six months ago a secret climate coalition was firmed, representing more than 100 countries on the developing and developed world, including the US.

Last night they revealed themselves at the UN climate talks in Paris as a force to be reckoned with, with four key demands.

The coalition wants an agreement at Paris to be legally binding; to set a clear long-term goal on global warming that is in line with scientific advice; to introduce a mechanism for reviewing countries’ emissions commitments every five years; and create a unified system for tracking countries’ progress on meeting their carbon goals.

Representing the US, all EU member states, as well as 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, the groups two notable absences are China and India.

The move is significant because it forms a major new power at the talks that wants to come to as strong an agreement as possible. Countries are meeting in Paris to forge a new global agreement on climate change, with limits on emissions and finance for poorer countries, to kick in from 2020 when current commitments expire.

The Paris talks, which are now into their final days, are seen as a make-or-break meeting, because if they fail the world will lack effective collective action on global warming.

Miguel Arias Cañete, the EU climate commissioner, said the alliance showed that developed and developing countries could work together with a common interest.

“These negotiations are not about them and us. They are about all of us, developed and developing countries, finding common ground and solutions together. We urge other countries to join us. Together we can do it,” he said.

07.Dec

December 07th, 2015

Will everyone please just chill?

EDITOR:

Gurmeet Singh, Berlin

It’s the end of the world as we know it. At least according to every Republican in America. We’re headed into a nuclear/ Biblical disaster zone, and the president of the world’s only superpower is too dull-witted to know what to do.

There is a striking parallel which no one seems to have mentioned: remember when George W. Bush was president, and he went to war, and everyone thought he was not only making a poor decision, but that he was unfit to lead? Well, the same is being said about President Obama – the only difference being that with Bush, at least, the case is easier to make. Do I need to remind you about his buffoonish public image? No, with Obama, it’s like high-school maths: you have to show your working. You can’t just say he’s unfit to lead. Nevertheless, that’s what’s happening, because he’s not going to war with Daesh/ ISIS.

Candidates like Rand Paul, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina have all signaled they think the best option would be to engage directly with Daesh, using that unlovely phrase so often heard in our times, ‘boots on the ground’. Fiorina even went so far as discussing which forces she would arm in the region, and with whom she would partner; as though nothing has been learnt from 1980s American foreign policy.

To be fair, Obama’s address to the nation after a tumultuous week which included yet another shooting in the States, and an attempted murder in Leytonstone, both of which have been linked to terrorism and ISIS in one way or another – was fairly non-committal. As it should have been – America should be thankful they have a leader in charge who isn’t swayed by national fervor to simply invade another country and ignite what would be a bonfire the whole world would feel.

No, he’s right to stick to his word, listen to the advice of his military and security personnel and not simply leap into Syria, boots first. That’s something we should all feel thankful for. But we should be prepared too – this piece of good news isn’t entirely heartening, especially in such a depressing environment. The right-wing is rising again in Europe – not just in France, but all over the place.

Muslims, refugees, people of colour – things are turning against all of them. So what do we do? As always, speak out, be brave and do what you can to build community trust again where you are. And also, keep calm. Chill. Relax. Everyone will tell you the apocalypse is coming in the next few weeks, months and years – but here’s the truth: it’s not. There will be no big bang this week or next that commences the epic conflict between Islam and the West. The only reality is that we diminish our own lives with fear, hate and suspicion. Now, stop taking Donald Trump seriously and have a chat with stranger – it might not be amazing, but it won’t be the end of the world.

02.Dec

December 02nd, 2015

On World Aids Day, we look forward

EDITOR:

Vanessa Ellingham

South African constitutional court judge Justice Edwin Cameron has written a moving account of his experiences with HIV as the battle to destroy stigma in South Africa continues.

"I started on anti-retrovirals at a time when the treatment was available only for those who could afford it. I was using a third of my judge’s salary to pay for medication. Today, treatment is affordable. The main challenges to its availability and accessibility are infrastructural and social – chiefly, stigma."

"

South Africa introduced free ARV medication more than 10 years ago. This came at a heavy cost – including a lengthy battle with former president Thabo Mbeki and his Aids denial policies. Although today treatment is available, and although more than 3 million South Africans now access it, the number of new infections is still distressingly high. Almost 200,000 people a year in my country are still dying of Aids today.

Stigma remains a central problem – fear of the disease, fear of people with the disease, rejection, ostracism and discrimination. Add to this our attitudes about masculinity in South Africa and many other parts of the world: men’s belief that they are invincible, that they have a right to sex and should have access to women’s bodies, that sex with protection is not real sex, that they are no longer “real men” if they become HIV-positive, that they’ll be seen as weak if they seek medical attention. It is the behaviour of men, and groups of men, that drives the epidemic.

Not enough is done to ensure men have access to HIV services. Women usually access health facilities during their reproductive years for antenatal and child health services. Men have far fewer opportunities to access health services. Surprisingly, little is done even to engage the men whose partners participate in prevention of mother-to-child transmission programmes. It’s a critical missed opportunity that needs to be addressed urgently.

What impelled me to speak openly about my HIV status, in 1999, was the murder of Gugu Dlamini. She was a young woman living in a poor part of Durban who was stoned to death in the street after she spoke openly on radio about the fact that she was HIV-positive. Her death drove me – a man who was living with protection that she never had – to try to combat stigma."

Today, stigma is undoubtedly declining; many more people know their HIV status, and many more know someone living with HIV. But the insidious effects of stigma and harmful ideas about manhood continue.

In September, UN member states ratified the sustainable development goals, a framework for global development policy over the next 15 years. The targets include ending the Aids epidemic by 2030.

Let's see what can be done.

30.Nov

November 30th, 2015

Getting used to the weather

EDITOR:

Gurmeet Singh, Berlin

Today is the first day of the Paris summit on climate change. 195 countries and nearly 150 world leaders including Barack Obama and Xi Jinping meet in Paris for COP21 UN climate change conference. There’s even many dignitaries such as Charles, Prince of Wales there – a long-time advocate for action on climate change.

Do I dare say I’m hopeful? Sure, why not? I hope that a positive agenda can be established by this summit, and that it can be the beginning of real action on this problem. The aim is to achieve binding international action on climate change, after all.

Whatever doubt I have comes partly from cynicism, and partly from learning more about geopolitics. I’m no expert (which probably fuels my cynicism), but learning about previous UN summits, the ensuing lack of action, as well as the numerous power plays power plays in these meetings makes me temper my hope somewhat.

I’m aware that these summits are often perceived as talking-shops for the big boys – ways to make the world believe they’re committed to doing something good, but then later on move right back into their usual routine of corruption and consumption. But it’s not true – these summits do something – they show how power in the world is shifting, and this might be the biggest outcome from this summit: we probably won’t be celebrating unilateral action on climate change in a month – but we probably will know who will lead the charge.

Everyone knows developed nations use these summits as a way of curbing the power of developing nations – the difference is this time, developing nations are in a much stronger position to challenge the Western status quo. Their markets are stronger, the geo-political situation is more complex, and people are more aware of the devastating, immediate impacts of climate change. Developing nations might be in a position to take on the old-gang at their own game.

We might see that as good: down with hegemony! All that stuff. However, we might have to realistically face that we’ll leave the summit with a deal we don’t want. Developing nations for sure deserve a place at the table, and deserve to set the agenda alongside the old elites. However, they might not take too kindly on measures which curb climate change by limiting their economic potential – Western hypocrisy notwithstanding.

So will we see global action on climate change? I hope so, probably not – but I hope so.

27.Nov

November 27th, 2015

What Would Magufuli Do

EDITOR:

Ama Lorenz

It was not an easy election, which Dr. John Pombe Magufuli lifted into office as the fifth president in the history of Tanzania on 5 November 2015. But what followed is one bang after another.

Bulldozer, workaholic, perfectionist, development dictator: The Tanzanians have many names for their new President - and have high hopes for him.

And yet, Magufuli is no stranger to the Tanzanian politics. Already under the presidency of Benjamin Mkapa he hold several ministerial offices from 1995-2010, including being the Minister of Labour and the Minister for Rural Development.

Now, as Magufuli promised, he will address the roots of corruption and build an anti-corruption court. That is very much in the spirit of many Tanzanians who mainly make the bribery responsible for the adverse economic situation of the country, which is rich in natural resources.

“I also understand that the president’s job is to help solve people’s problems without discriminations of race, tribe, religion or otherwise. To help bring these changes, I plan to do a lot of things,” Magufuli promised in his electioncampaign. Few weeks later he generates buzz.

They are small and sometimes bold steps, but they were quick to welcome by the Tanzanians, who have long complained of government overspending.

Especially for the youth, which has played a crucial role in his election, Magufuli is a symbol for a new, fresh wind in the fight against corruption and for austerityplans in the country. Under #WhatWouldMagufuliDo, one of the trend hashtags in East Africa, they are displaying all kind of ways of saving money, with a more or less humorous approach.

Some Tanzania fear that Magufuli will lead his new office autocratically and hasty decisions are made, for which the government will pay at the end. As for example, when Magufuli detained - in his tenure as Minister - a large foreign fishing ship that was said to have illegally fished in Tanzanian waters. A court decided, however, that fishing is permitted at the site - the government had to pay penalties of 2.8 billion Tanzanian shillings (about 1.2 million euros).

His followers, however believe that the country needs not just big words, but a man of action to tackle problems such as rampant corruption and the stagnant economy.

And it seems, that is exactly what Tanzania's President John Magufuli does, when he ordered government officials to solve a string of problems that the people face including thousands of land disputes, which often are compounded by corrupt officials.

Although many measures of Magufuli’s new government may seem strange from the outside perspective, they are nevertheless an important sign for the Tanzanians. And who knows - some of them are potentially useful for the one or other Western government and well be worth considering.

25.Nov

November 25th, 2015

France's asylum for artefacts: protecting treasures from ISIS

EDITOR:

Vanessa Ellingham

Here’s one way France is defending against ISIS that you may not have heard of: protecting cultural treasures.

Forget cultural diplomacy, where museums and embassies have in recent times made an effort to exhibit foreign pieces and spread goodwill. The President of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez has drawn up a 50-point plan to defend civilisation and our treasures.

Following ISIS’s destruction buildings at the ancient site of Palmyra in Syria, France’s President Hollande commissioned Martinez to draw up the plan and his key recommendation - that France provides “asylum” for threatened artefacts - is already being pushed through law.

Recognising the cultural threat posed by ISIS, the plans don’t attempt to “convert” the organisation but rather preserve artefacts from the organisation’s idea that ancient history should be knocked down to make room for their fresh ideologies.

Martinez has suggested that up to 20% of ISIS’s funding may come from the cultural loot it is known to be selling abroad on the black market. So his plans propose both a new European database of stolen cultural property and a European Monitoring Centre to scrutinise the illicit art trade.

If given the go-ahead at European level or, as is suggested, by UNESCO, a fund would also be created to reconstruct damaged antiquities, and a program would be developed to train more archaeologists in Iraq and Syria.

Khaled al-Asaad, the antiques scholar who was killed by ISIS militants after refusing to lead them to Palmyra’s hidden treasures, would be remembered with a memorial in the Tuileries Garden in Paris.

As Jonathan Jones argues in The Guardian, “some people may object that this move is typical of French cultural elitism and say that instead of flamboyantly defending the Louvre’s “eurocentric” vision of civilisation, France should pour money into multicultural exhibitions, especially of Islamic art, to break down barriers. But that has been tried. Since 9/11, museums have embraced global culture with incredible enthusiasm and Islam in particular has been celebrated by shows like the British Museum’s Hajj.”

“But it makes no difference to terrorists if you admire classical temples or medieval minarets because their parody of religion makes them hate almost all expressions of creativity and thought – including many Islamic traditions. In Timbuktu, Islamists destroyed Sufi shrines and attacked mausoleums because these are supposedly against their “pure” fantasy of Islam.”

“Civilisation is under threat and it needs defending. “

23.Nov

November 23rd, 2015

Meanwhile, in space...

EDITOR:

Gurmeet Singh, Berlin

Perhaps one of the more annoying aspects of social media is the impulse to hyperbole. Moderation and sense are abandoned in favour of grand statement, grander sentiment and the far-reaches of time and space are plumbed to explicate a simple political position, an emotional trial, or whatever the subject is. The weird thing is how this tendency works across both positive and negative attitudes: a night out was THE BEST EVER; a foreign policy IS ABSOLUTELY THE DUMBEST THING SINCE THE SUEZ DEBACLE - whatever it is, IT CHANGES EVERYTHING.

Even so, one particular meme emerged after the Paris attacks - a short video of a text read by the physicist, Carl Sagan. In it, Sagan reads from one of his books, and explains that the universe is so vast that it renders human action simultaneously trivial and beautiful: trivial because of the significance we ascribe to it in such an unimaginably vast and dramatic place, and beautiful because of the fact it happens at all. This was in response to Paris attacks - the tone being to remind us all that the world is gorgeous and delicate, and that we have to take care of it - not call for reprisals against this or that group and make outrageous calls for war against this or that country.

Well, Sagan's talk may have inspired us for a moment, but bear in mind that you might be inspired for a lifetime because of what's happening in the next few weeks. I'm not even exaggerating.

The Lisa Pathfinder will launch on the 2nd December from the European Space Agency's base in Guiana. It will carry components that will be tested as part of a future orbiting gravitational wave observatory.

The Guardian writes: "Gravitational waves are thought to be hurled across space when stars start throwing their weight around, for example, when they collapse into black holes or when pairs of super-dense neutron stars start to spin closer and closer to each other. These processes put massive strains on the fabric of space-time, pushing and stretching it so that ripples of gravitational energy radiate across the universe. These are gravitational waves."

Their existence was posited by Einstein, and has been a controversial topic in astrophysics ever since. At least that's what the Wiki article says - there's a lot - like everything - like OH MY GOD I'M NOT KIDDING - that's new to me here. But apparently, this launch could go a long way to finally proving Einstein right or wrong - which would be totes !!! for nerds galaxy-wide.

18.Nov

November 18th, 2015

The EU isn't at war, yet

EDITOR:

Vanessa Ellingham

France has taken the European Union into uncharted territory by obliging the other 27 member states to come to its defence following the terrorist atrocities in Paris.

Invoking article 42.7, a never used clause of the EU treaty triggering mutual defence among the 28 member states, Paris admitted it was struggling to cope with its foreign military commitments while beefing up security at home in the wake of the attacks, and asked the rest of Europe to come to its assistance.

The request was supported unanimously in what Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French defence minister, described as an emotional and highly charged meeting of EU defence ministers in Brussels.

As a result of the train attacks in Spain in 2004, the EU inserted mutual defence measures into the Lisbon treaty similar to the Nato alliance’s article five, which obliges all member countries to come to the defence of one of their number if attacked.

As the EU does not have an army, the French will now conduct a set of bilateral negotiations with other EU states on what kind of military help might be available.

So what does this mean? Well it doesn't mean that the EU is at war, as the most sensationalist of media suggested yesterday.

But it does put the union in a position it has never been in before.

Some might call it a time of renewed solidarity in Europe after a year that's seen many cracks form on the edges of the union.

Or perhaps it may prove that only mutual fear can hold the EU together.